Sometimes Slower is Better

We live in a world where the faster you do something, the better. The faster you make it through college, the better. The faster you climb the corporate chain, the better. The faster you get find the right guy, the better. The faster you settle down, the better. The faster you run, the better.

Or at least that's what the world tries to tell us. Everything around us is fast paced, but that doesn't mean it's the best way to live. We all tend to become wrapped up in fast paced life from time to time. We start to become enthralled in everything around us, and we have to move fast to keep up.  

This whole idea spurred from a run tonight. It was the first time I had run in a week due to our trip to Vegas and me being sick. I set out to run 4 miles in 45 minutes. That's very do able for me at the pace I usually run, but it's nowhere near fast.

Unfortunately, God had other plans. At 27 minutes, I had only run 2 miles instead of almost 3. My average pace was over 12 minutes. (I never go over 10 1/2!) And until I checked my progress, I was feeling good....probably because I was almost walking instead of actually running.

But at 30 minutes, I looked into the sky and watched a star fall farther than I have ever seen one fall. And I smiled.

I realized then that my run tonight was not about speed. It was not about distance, pace, or time. It was about slowing down and re-focusing. It was time to think and re-charge. If I had not been running so incredibly slow, I never would have been in the place I was at the time I was to see that star fall from the sky. It turns out that sometimes slower is better, especially in a world where we go from one thing to the next often without blinking.

In the fast paced society we live in, we all need to have something that slows us down intentionally. Something that we can escape to and re-charge through.

Ironically tonight, my slow down was a run....what's yours?